Unfortunately for Ellie, Marty discovers she is the one who painted the forgery. In the 1950s, Ellie becomes so obsessed with Sara in the aftermath of creating the forgery that she decides to write her dissertation on Sara, despite warnings that no one is interested in female painters. Her paintings are among those her employer passes on to his heirs, and the self-portrait eventually ends up in the hands of a modern-day descendent. She dies of an infection after falling through some ice. Sara creates both A Child’s Funeral Procession to honor the people killed by plague in Heemstede, and one more painting-a self-portrait she completes at the end of her life. In Heemstede, Sara meets and settles down with Tomas. At the Edge of a Wood ends up in the hands of Pieter de Groot, Marty’s ancestor, who buys the painting at an auction of the de Vos household goods. Barent abandons Sara, who is forced to move to Heemstede to work in the home of a landowner holding some of the debt. In Part 2, the plot expands to cover what happens after the creation of the painting in 1637, the creation of the forgery in 1958, and the appearance of two At the Edge of the World paintings in 2000.īarent and Sara are virtually bankrupted when the guild controlling the sale of art fines them when they discover the de Voses are selling cheap and unsigned works of art without the guild’s permission. She is sure he means to unmask her as a forger. The person bringing the painting is Marty de Groot, the original owner and Ellie’s former lover.
If discovered, the revelation of the forgery has the capacity to destroy Ellie’s career. By some strange twist, At the Edge of a Wood and the forgery of the painting are both headed to an art exhibition on which Ellie is working in Sydney. With an inciting incident, Smith brings the story forward to 2000. She creates the de Vos forgery both because she feels a kinship with Sara as a woman, but also because she feels anger at the way her sex impedes her desire to be an artist. Barent de Vos, Sara’s husband, cannot sell the depressing painting he works on after the little girl’s death, and Sara secretly works on At the Edge of a Wood to work through her own grief.Ĭenturies later, Ellie is a young woman who feels like an outsider in the academic art world of the 1950s.
The girl’s death leads to financial ruin for the family. Back in the 17th century, Sara’s daughter dies of the plague. Smith tells the story of how Sara came to create the painting and how Ellie creates the forgery.
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